Many South Koreans consider a trip to the Dodko Islands a civic duty.

In the middle of the Sea of Japan, almost equidistant between Japan and Korea, jut two seemingly inconsequential craggy islets. They are no larger than Grand Central Terminal and yet the Liancourt Rocks—or Dokdo Islands or Takeshima islands depending on who is asking—are at the center of a diplomatic dispute between the two countries that goes back more than 300 years.